


Abuela Knows Best

by LouiseLouise



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Abuela is sick, Fake/Pretend Relationship, First Kiss, Fluff, Gen, Getting Together, Happy Ending, Hospitalization, Light Angst, M/M, Nothing bad happens to Abuela I'm not a monster okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-27
Updated: 2019-11-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:34:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21585463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LouiseLouise/pseuds/LouiseLouise
Summary: When Eddie's abuela gets sick, she mentions how much it'd mean to her, seeing Eddie and Buck get married, ignoring the fact that they are not, actually, together.Except Buck plays along to comfort her and now Eddie doesn't know how to deal with his secret feelings for his best friend.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Comments: 35
Kudos: 461





	Abuela Knows Best

**Author's Note:**

> Just so you know, my Spanish is not good enough to use in fics, so Isabel speaks English here.  
> Unbeta'd, English is not my first language, all mistakes are mine.

“My only regret,” Isabel starts saying, but a nasty cough stops her. Eddie and Buck are in her hospital room like they’ve been every day after their shift for the past week, trying to stay hopeful when every day the doctor tries to prepare them for the worse. The first day when Eddie received the call, Buck just tagged along and stayed by his side without even being asked, and it felt good, to not be alone in this.

Eddie takes the cup of water on her bedside table and helps her drink. “Slowly, Abuela, it’s okay you don’t have to talk.”  
She smiles at him and cups his face. “My sweet angel,” she says. “My only regret is that I won’t be here to see you two get married.” She look back and forth between Eddie and Buck, both furrowing their brows in surprise.

“What?” Eddie’s the first one to get out of his stupor.  
“Such an adorable one you found,” she smiles, resting her head back on the pillow. “And good looking too,” she adds grinning at Buck, who just snorts at that.  
“Hey,” Eddie turns back towards Buck, “don’t encourage her,” he whispers, glaring. “Abuela, Buck and I, I don’t know why you’d think that we, uh-”  
Buck cuts him mid sentence by moving a step closer to the bed and putting a hand on Isabel’s hand, squeezing gently. “This is very nice of you to say,” he smiles at her. “I think this one,” he puts his free hand on Eddie’s shoulder, “is just waiting to find the perfect ring to pop the question, you know,” he adds with a wink.

Eddie can feel his face going bright red now and he’s one lie away from punching Buck in the face. Just because his abuela is on her dying bed doesn’t give Buck the right to mess with her like that. Not that he wouldn’t want to get the guy a ring, if he’s being honest it’s his number two fantasy when thinking about Buck, and he’s never sharing his number one with anyone. Ever. 

But he still knows the difference between his fantasy and reality, and in reality they’re best friends, nothing else. What he doesn’t understand is how Buck can be so comfortable about all this. Unless he knows about Eddie’s massive crush on him and he’s just seizing the opportunity to mess with him. That’d make sense.

“Awww yes that’s my Edmundo right there,” Isabel coos and before Eddie realizes it, Buck is leaning towards him and pressing his lips against his mouth. It’s perfect and soft and absolutely everything Eddie ever hoped it’d be. But it’s also very fake.

Buck’s face falls instantly as he breaks the kiss and slowly pulls away, and Eddie’s fears are suddenly all becoming reality. They crossed a line here and from the look of it, there’s probably no coming back to their easy friendship after this.

“Edmundo, come here,” Isabel asks, unaware of the turmoils going through Eddie’s mind, pulling him out of his overthinking, her hand waving for him to come sit beside her on the bed. “I’ll tell you a secret.” He leans in to listen. “That boy he already loves you, ring or not, can’t you see? It’s never about the ring, carino, and if it is,” she adds almost whispering now, “then he’s not the one for you”. She taps gently on Eddie’s cheek. “Now you two go, I need to sleep.”

And just like that, it’s just Eddie and Buck in the desert hallway of the fourth floor, alone and trying to unfuck their messy thoughts.

“I’m sorry”, they both say at the same time, falling back into silence right away.

Buck’s the first to speak again. “I shouldn’t have done that, without your consent,” he says. “It seemed fun to play along but it was stupid, and cruel to let her think that-” he sighs. “I’m sorry.”  
“You made her smile though,” Eddie says after taking a deep breath, trying to shake off the delight he felt being kissed by Buck. The image of his abuela treating Buck like family makes him smile in turn. Of course it has absolutely nothing to do with the lingering feeling of Buck’s soft lips on his, warming his heart.  
“Can we just pretend it never happened?” Buck asks.  
Eddie nods. It’s probably the only valid choice anyway, so. If Eddie replays that kiss in his head as they walk away, it’s nobody else’s business.

-

Eddie visits his abuela on his own the next days, because as much as he and Buck agreed to pretend nothing happened, things are still awkward between them. He brings Chris when it’s not too late at night, because the kid’s always known how to make her laugh, and it’s good to see them happy for a moment. He tries not to think too much about how every day could be the last. He forces himself not to dwell too much on how he wishes Buck was there too.

“How is she?” Buck asks one morning at the start of a shift. 

They haven’t talked a lot those past days and Eddie can sense the hesitation in Buck’s voice, not sure he’s allowed to ask.  
“She has good days and bad days,” Eddie says, “so, I don’t know.” He tries to keep it together, hold the tears, and the fears inside. Just because Buck is polite enough to ask doesn’t mean he really wants to know, and Eddie can’t drag him back into his life with pity. But it’s so hard to carry on on his own and he really needs his best friend right now.

Buck nods, a soft smile on his lips, and it’s all it takes for Eddie to break down.  
“No that’s a lie,” he says, eyes closed to contain the tears. “They want me to come by tonight, to talk. Fuck, Buck, I can’t lose her, I ca-” Buck reaches out and takes him in his arms, letting him sob against his neck.

“I know you and me are in an awkward place right now but could you come with me, just this once?” Eddie asks, pulling away from Buck, a terrified look on his face. ”I don’t think I can handle any bad news alone,” he adds.  
“I’ll drive,” Buck says, offering Eddie a soft smile.

-

“She’s what?” Eddie almost shouts as the doctor explains the situation. They’re standing in Isabel’s room, Buck next to him trying really hard not to laugh.  
“Your grandmother is allergic to one of the essence of her- let me see,” she looks down to her file, “good fortune charm. We found it in her purse, she’s kept using it while staying with us and sadly she refuses to tell us where she got it from.” she sighs. “But as long as she doesn’t come in contact with it anymore she’ll be fine. I’m sorry it took so long to detect, Mr Diaz, it’s not one of the first things we usually test for.”  
They shake hand and the doctor leaves. Eddie lets out a breathe he’s been holding for way too long now.

“A good fortune charm, Isabel?” Buck asks with a mischievous smile. “Wanna tell us more about that?” He takes a seat and brings it next to the bed.  
“You’re encouraging her, again,” Eddie rolls his eyes.  
“Well it worked didn’t it?” Isabel says. “Next time I’ll just check the ingredients, that’s it.”  
“What worked?” Buck asks, curious.  
“You two,” she says. “You’d still be waiting for the other to make the first move, if it weren’t for me.”  
Eddie and Buck look at each other, speechless, and Eddie can see Buck’s face go all sad again.  
“Okay I’m sorry to disappoint, Abuela,” Eddie says, sitting on the edge of the bed. He looks at Buck one more time, gathering the courage to tell the truth. At least part of it, keeping to himself his feelings for Buck that no one needs to hear. “I know you meant well but we’re not together. We just thought-”  
Buck stands up. “It’s my fault, I acted like an idiot. You were talking about seeing us get married and all, and I just, didn’t really think it through. I’m sorry. We didn’t mean to lie, I swear.”

Isabel stays silent for a few minutes, studying both their faces, replaying their words in her head.  
“So what you’re saying is that you, Buck, are not in love with my grandson?” she finally asks.  
“Uh, well,” Buck clears his throat, eyes on his feet, avoiding Eddie’s concerned look.  
“Buck?” Eddie asks. How hard could it be for Buck to answer that question, it’s not like he actually has feelings for Eddie, right?  
“And you, Edmundo,”, Isabel asks pulling Eddie out of his thoughts, “you’re telling me that you are not in love with this young man here?” she adds.  
Okay so maybe it’s not that easy to tell her the truth, but that’s just because his truth would ruin their friendship. So. Unless... Eddie opens and closes his mouth a few times, unable to find the right words, all the emotions from those past weeks clouding his ability to keep lying.  
“Eddie?” Buck asks in turn, furrowing his brows.  
“Listen,” Eddie says reluctantly, “it’s not like I planned it okay? It just, happened,” he admits, dreading Buck’s reaction.  
Buck hums and nods. “Yeah, yeah no, same,” he says looking Eddie in the eye.  
“What?” Eddie asks, the air suddenly leaving his lungs and making him choke.  
Buck tilts his head a little, eyes still stuck on Eddie, with that genuine smile Eddie knows and loves. “Same,” he repeats with a shrug, and it’s all it takes for Eddie to stand up and close the space between them to catch Buck’s mouth with his. They only pull away as a knock on the door surprises them both and a nurse comes in with her favorite patient’s dinner. 

“Abuela did you just wink at your nurse?” Eddie asks, dumbfounded, his head still dizzy from the rush of emotions that kissing Evan Buckley threw his way.  
“Well at least now Greta can’t say I’m imagining things anymore,” she grins.  
“Oh my god,” both Eddie and Buck whispers in unison, Isabel and Greta looking at them with the widest smiles. 

“Anyway.” Eddie says. It’s been a grueling fortnight and he doesn’t have it in him to be mad at his abuela for her childish but all in all harmless behavior. “We’ll come pick you up tomorrow, like the doc said, okay Abuela?”  
“Of course,” she smiles. “Don’t forget what I said about the ring, okay love?”  
“Unbelievable,” Eddie mumbles, as he pushes Buck outside the room and into the hallway, but Buck turns around towards Isabel one last time.  
“I’ll make sure he doesn’t, Isabel,” he says, winking at her before closing the door behind them.

“Burgers, my place?” Buck suggests as they exit the hospital. 

Eddie knows they probably need to talk about, well, about everything, but right now burgers are a great choice. And if they end up making out on Buck’s couch while the fries go cold well, that’s an even better choice.

He’ll have to ask his abuela about her charm recipe though, it never hurts to have a little extra good luck on your side.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading !  
> Like always, kudos are love and comments make my heart melts ♥


End file.
